This Week in GameGuru - 01/13/2020

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

GameGuru News

Not much, unfortunately.  Work goes on behind the scenes, so I hear from those in the know. I cannot divulge the specifics, unfortunately.  Nothing on github but some excellent stuff is coming, near as I can tell almost a generational leap for GG. Time will tell from a public view but all I can say is that from my viewpoint I see a lot of things clicking together right now in a way I haven't seen since early 2016 or so.  

What's Good in The Store

Wolf has released a massive 2019 Sci-Fi pack and I own many of these already. I use them with regularity but a few new items also appeared in the form of a 'booster kit'

Just one of many of the superb assets in the booster pack!

You can get your copy here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33832
On to another favorite - a fantastic 'torch light' script by Teabone.  I have to say as someone who wrote up a whole LightKit of my own, I'm impressed by the simplicity and function of the torch kit. Check out this video for an idea of what I mean:

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoFImeQK2w

This script is a total bargain at $2 for any fantasy project: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33858

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

           It bears reiterating that 'Bored of The Rings', a forum user, has been developing many excellent tools that are pretty much a required faire for anyone serious about using GameGuru at this point.  They are reasonably priced and I highly recommend picking up your own copies.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221333 - This is the heightmap importer he's diligently worked on which is now up to version 5!

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221285 - This is the FPSC autowelder tool which can LITERALLY IMPORT ENTIRE LEVELS FROM FPSC INTO GAMEGURU.
It also can pull dynamic entities, weapons, etc over.  It fits a critical pipeline for those building indoor scenes - you can build your indoor scenes in FPSC and import them into GameGuru.  Really quality stuff.

In the interim, I know cybernessence (another GG user) has been working on some amazing things of his own.  Per his words:
"Just added wake effects for ships and water and sky (sky scroll clouds) transparency based on configurable co-ordinates so airships can punch through cloud layer and subs can dip below the waterline without texture plane intersects. Looks pretty good. Added numerous lua lcommands such as getting limbs for HUDs, so can add particle effects to FP hands and weapons. Loot chests are now populated by 'add entity' commands - so money (or any asset) can be dynamically loaded at run time ... lost count of all the changes made to make the game better now to be honest"

I for one am still praying he'll include some of those in the core branch of GG on Github.

Free Stuff

Nothing I could find this week, sorry!

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

New user Mav3r1ck has been building some really excellent fantasy dungeon crawls:

The above is apparently a boss fight arena.

I love the dark and red look he's put on using some custom assets and lighting.  Great work!

Avenging eagle's interesting game with torches and lighting as a core mechanic is coming along splendidly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmKBugPxWPM 

And lastly we have more teasers from Duchenkuke's fantastic Dark Skies game:

 https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221314?page=1#msg2625068

   

In My Own Works

I've been getting back into the swing of working GameGuru intermittently now that life is making more sense!  I want to thank everyone who has purchased my book, I want you to know it's been very fulfilling to provide something that so many are able to own and appreciate!

My more current works will involve some scripts being released on the store (two of them for free) in the near future.  So keep your eyes peeled!

This Week in GameGuru - 1/6/2020

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

Happy new year everyone - I'm back!  I realize it's been an extended absence and for that, I do apologize.  I cannot be 100% sure that I will not have further absences but at this point I will do my level best to continue this project for the time being.  Unfortunately life sometimes simply gets in the way as it did the past few months for me. I've got a lot to catch up on as December was a highly productive month.

GameGuru News

TGC produced a 'december update' which was a welcome change from many years of long holidays with no communication from them.  This welcome change fixed a lot of persistent code issues including one of my own issues - that of projectile caching not working properly and causing erratic behavior with projectile systems like the ones included with my "Cybernoir Weapons Kit".

What's most encouraging is a renewed focus on attempting to improve the engine.  I'd liken this to the ~2015-2016 era when we had a number of big fixes and changes on a fairly regular basis.  It's an exciting time. Moreover they appear to be hiring freelancers to help bugfix.  If you are interested in this position, see this post here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221436

What's Good in the Store

AlexGCC's 2019 pack - this combines many decent elements into a well priced pack worth a look:  https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11169
I really love Sula's City Construction pack as well for its wide variety of PBR assets with just the right amount of 'grunge' to them: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11163
Lastly I have point at belidos isometric kit, which looks positively awesome: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11161

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

There are few people in the GameGuru community who don't know Wolf; he's a long standing member stretching back over a decade or so with tons of experience putting together many tutorials on lighting.  He's recently come back to GameGuru and found the static lightmapper is working to his liking again and as such has written an updated and fairly expansive guide on how to use it: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219206

A new version of BOTR's superb and pretty much 'must have' heightmap utility can be found here:
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221333 

Free Stuff

December is usually overwhelmed with 'free stuff' due to the infectious Christmas spirit. This December was no exception with a huge mass of free models and media available.

Firstly we have wolf's beautiful 'Sci-Fi archway': Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221444

Belidos put up a number of cartoon-style assets for free you can retrieve here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218362?page=2

Mav3r1ck1981 made a fantastic sci-fi medical table here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221371 

Lafayette put out this awesome butcher store horror-style pack: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220474?page=3#msg2623695.

Random Acts of Creativity

This is where I saved my bandwidth, folks.  Lots of really good projects have started to creep their way into the daylight and it's definitely worth showcasing a few.

Let's start with Wolf's own project since returning.  He sent me several screenshots and elected to let me pick the best one.  I settled on this beauty:

I like the style and design; he uses a lot of the same techniques I illustrate in my book to reuse common assets intelligently as well.  Overall the lighting and contrast is a classic RGB wheel blue and yellow which works exceptionally well.


Duchenkuke's project, Dark Skies, the Nemansk incident, is another prime example of what can be done with competence and a good eye for artistic flair.  It's got a brutal, dark, gritty feel that really gives you a sense of Metro-style depth which really pops in this engine.

He's using some excellent Sepia tones and great modelling choices to help accentuate the atmosphere along with a completely custom HUD that looks fantastic!

Other big hitters have dominated the scene as well with Cybernessence posting a significant December update showing his own work with the engine and the heightmapper by BOTR:

I like the touch he has there of calling his build the 'cogwheel engine'.  Seems accurate, given the massive amount of updates and changes he's made to GameGuru essentially drives it to be it's own entity at this point.

That's not all either.  There are many dozens of project updates this month so swing on over to the forums and check them out!

In My Own Works

I got to see a cool 'present' of my own this month - someone who purchased a hardcover copy of my book!  I don't even have one of those - I'm a touch envious!  So far reviews have been positive though with the rate of change in GameGuru, I may have to write a revised copy in a year or so.

A few final notes - if you HAVEN'T received your free models and media as a purchaser of the book, contact me on discord or via the forums and I will see to it you receive it promptly.  Purchasers of the book get free demo maps, models, character creator assets, my cybernoir entities, and my cybernoir weapons pack - and much more!
Lastly - please leave a review at amazon for me.  This greatly assists in online sales of the book and will help boost my visibility to others who are looking for it.

This Week in GameGuru - 10/27/2019

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

Another week, another belated TWIGG report.
Unfortunately this is turning into the norm for me as I am consistently overwhelmed by real world factors that hopefully will slow down come early next year.
In the interim I will crank these out as often and as on time as I can manage.

GameGuru News

 

This week we've seen a significant amount of activity on 'project V3' on github.  Some of what I'm seeing there is very exciting!

https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commits/ProjectV3

Notable elements include an update to Character Creator, load time tweaks, GUI updates and more.
Very exciting stuff!

The SUPERB enhanced weapon pack is on sale this week as well for as low as you will likely ever see it - definitely pick it up now if you are ever going to pick it up!

What's Good in the Store

Finally got my Cyberpunk Noir guns up

If you are a book purchaser and haven't gotten a redemption code for them, please let me know!

Book sales have obviously tapered off; like games they have a really big front end and a longer back end.  If you haven't purchased a copy, try using this code to save 20%:  AITGG230
Use it at this link here:
https://www.crcpress.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

You can also find the additional book resources there for free under 'additional resources'.

This week also had several great packs show up:

Gtox added a prehistoric critter pack (GameGuru Ark clone, anyone?)

And Fredgames77 continues rapidly cranking out high quality models, this time in the form of a building tool pack!

Free Stuff

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221251 Mipastu put in a pretty clever fix for AI getting stuck on walls and corners by making an 'AI wall' which essentially allows you to keep them from getting to problem areas.  Definitely worth the download.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

Looks like BOTR is integrating his heightmap importer INTO GameGuru's github code as a branch.  This is very exciting to me and I'm really hoping we see that additional functionality implemented sooner rather than later! Additional details can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221100#msg2622732

Random Acts of Creativity(WIPs)

Synchromesh has added some new music to his excellent Protascope game (by DuchenKuke): https://youtu.be/9qDAmpCIb-4

Cybernessence put up a new screenshot for his epic GameGuru work "The CogWheel Chronicles":

And this blurb about the latest changes he's made:

"I've re-written the player swimming to use the physics capsule, it's much better now - though it did need a new lua command to fine tune it (SetWorldGravity) - which will come in handy for the barsoom levels too.

I also updated the in-game terrain loading to load associated entities (it was only loading terrain and grass before from the fpm and positioning anywhere in the world) and added the DCO to it, to keep silky smooth play. The memory seems to be paging in and out properly, so if I load one terrain/level part then delete and load another the memory is smoothing out. Still got a lot of testing to do to make sure this holds up with 16 different fpm's loaded on the fly, and I did hit a 'random' crash bug that took me days and days to find (this was in my added mods not GG stock code) ."

He's done incredible work which I hope to see integrated by middle of next year at the latest.  Time will tell though!

Naelurec has some updates with details and technical information but also these great new menu screenshots:

Really simple, clever, and clean.  I like it a lot.  You can get more info here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221152?page=1#msg2622551

In My Own Works

I've recently begun putting together another HQ space skies set, but run into some snags.  Expect a few freebies of my throwaways along with a new pack on the store in the near future!

This Week in GameGuru - 09/23/2019

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

GameGuru News

The public preview of the beta changes arrived and the changes are about what was expected:

per https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221133
A bevvy of performance-related fixes were done including the draw-call batcher.
* F11 in Standalone no longer causes PBR debug layers to be rendered
* New DOCDOC system added to code allowing a new 'Docs\SETUP INI Description.txt' doc to be auto-created
* Improved MIXAMO FBX Importing (2-chain-finger in T-POSE), simply select 'Uber' in 'Is Character Field'
* Added Convex Hull collision shape to the physics system, use by setting COLLISIONMODE in FPE to 9
* Fixed EXPORTASSETS flag in SETUP.INI to correctly export unencrypted full entities with standalone  

Overall the results are positive but users are still reporting some errors - it's important to recall that a public preview is essentially the same as an open beta.  It is widely accessible but not an official 'stable' version.  Report your bugs!

What's Good in the Store

Erart made a somewhat bizarre but kind of cool 'magical hand' weapon.  You have to see it to understand what I mean here:

https://youtu.be/Cg8_jFwhSOc

You can get yours from: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33493

Tools and Tutorials

This week the GameGuru youtube official channel posted more tutorials.  Some of these are better than others but I think for most advanced users the useful ones would be the ones on blender and fbx imports.

Free Stuff

Smallg's transition from coder to modeller is still going strong - get your free models here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221130

Fumar built a beautiful house you can download to add to your collection:

Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221118?page=1#msg2621303  

He also built a bench: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221118?page=1#msg2621110

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week we've got a lot of works in progress.  Let's start with this one by C4ever08, a project titled called "Dietara" that we've covered before with lots of updates on it:

I admire the scope and personal touch of the landscape.

Full details are available here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220994#msg2621235

Cybernessence updated/refreshed his art for the hero characters in his Cogwheel Chronicles epic:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2621264

He also has additional updates on his work on modifying the drawcall optimizer for his own purposes: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2621068

Solar has lots of updates on his Resist: Revolution game here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218343?page=3

Lastly, one of my favorite store authors, OldFlak, started work on a new project in the Sci-Fi vein that looks fantastic by my estimation:

Get the full scoop (and plenty of great looking screenshots) here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221152

In My Own Works

I'm really happy to see the response my book on GameGuru has gotten.  I haven't gotten any kind of official figures but I can honestly say that this thing was a labor of love.  I'll never break even on the time I invested or the money outlaid for things.  I'm *STILL* dealing with some minor cleanup of items before they go on the store, though I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be up this week.

In the meantime if you have purchased my book I'd really personally appreciate it if you'd stop by the listing on Amazon and write up a quick review of it.  You can do that here: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-GameGuru-Michael-Matthew-Messina/dp/1138612634

I guess we'll see!

This Week in GameGuru - 08/12/2019

This article represents solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions or views of r The Game Creators, it's employees, or subordinates.  It likewise does not reflect the views or opinions of www.tgcstore.net and it's staff.  The author receives no compensation for this work and it is done solely as a service for the GameGuru community at large.

As you can see, this week I've included a disclaimer as I've received feedback that the way this blog is syndicated on www.game-guru.com, www.thegamecreators.com, blogarama, and gamedev.net can lead to some confusion as to the nature of these news releases. I will be including this disclaimer going forward to help clarify for those who are not familiar with my work.

While I realize that some people may disagree with my methodologies, at the same time you are free to do so.  I do reside and live in the United States of America and our rights of free speech are important to me.  I make every effort to ensure that I do not denigrate or diminish anyone's work.  If you take issue with the way I portray YOUR PERSONAL PRODUCTS then please contact me.

Thanks for your time, everyone - I now consider that issue at an end.  Also, a special note at the end so make sure you read all the way through - big news about my book! :)

GameGuru News

Per GitHub the latest information is that there is a trial version being added to GameGuru where you can use it for around 7 days before having to purchase it.  This will likely add a number of new potential buyers to the product so keep a close eye out for those new guys and gals!

Also it appears there is a relatively minor change that will allow standalones to be exported without encryption so as to allow entity sharing?  I'm not sure what that one is for but I'm sure it'll make sense eventually.

I can also soft confirm that ... other interesting things are going on with GG.  That's the most I'll say for the moment!

What's Good in The Store

FredGames77 continues to pump out high quality assets at a record pace.  While we've all likely got a huge stash of boxes, the quality on his recent submission is definitely worth a look:

You get 10 'pack cases' (boxes) for $10 (currently on sale for $5!) - a very reasonable offer.  These are high quality to boot with low poly count and excellent PBR texturing.  Get yours here: https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11145

There's also this interesting grub enemy creature by Gtox:

Get yours here: https://www.tgcstore.net/product/33376

Free Stuff

Honkeyboy added some horns to Character Creator: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220945

Not bad work.  I will admit my book's materials ALSO include some donated Character Creator attachments so keep an eye out for that as well. He's got additional ones here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220945#msg2618825
They include a rice farmer's hat, knight's templar's helm, skeleton warrior, and another set of demon horns.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

 

This week I caught wind of a pretty interesting blog tutorial on the best mods for Blender 2.8 (which recently dropped).  If you use Blender actively check it out here:   https://cgcookie.com/articles/the-top-10-modeling-addons-for-blender-2-8

The latest official GameGuru tutorial video was posted online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMqPsVpy2Ag

There were actually a number of non-english tutorials being posted.  Some work reasonably well enough with youtube's auto-translate function if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYebtk_SETs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEova6DMa5Q

Work continues on the '3d Asset Manager' program for GG - it has come such a long way in such a short period.  The latest info can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822?page=5#msg2618874

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bod this week made a really serious Taxicab..which turned into a police car... which turned into this awesome street racer with neon lights and alpha-planed headlights.  https://youtu.be/dw8mi4z7isg

Bonesy also made more forward momentum through steady refinement of his cyber-fi game:

One of the more interesting bits is a new user named "Trollbae" posted one of his friends creations from amateur work in the EBE and it's an impressive manor house:

I have to admit this is quality work for someone who is just trying out the EBE and GameGuru.  It shows a pretty clear ease for new users and I proves a bit to some of us older hats that maybe the EBE is worth using from time to time after all!

Tarkus1971 posted an update to his 'Urban Histories' game that I am personally very interested in seeing - apparently he's reworking it from scratch.  More info here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220589?page=1#msg2619135

Solar is working on a side project called "Zombie Central".  It's a suburban zombie city crawl.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220974#msg2619073

This is because his other project, Kaboom Foxie is apparently nearly complete.

In My Own Works

And lastly, in my own big news (if you even made it this far to the end of this report) ... is my book is FINALLY released!

https://www.crcpress.com/An-Introduction-to-GameGuru/Messina/p/book/9781138612631

That's right!  The first start to finish guide for making and selling a game in GameGuru is finally here! The book is 426 pages in print with a significant error index, Lua, FPI Guide, 20+ chapters on GameGuru and Game Development in general.

The assets for this (demo maps, character creator addons, custom weapons,  custom static entities, some generously donated other materials, all my scripts, skies and textures...) are all going to be uploaded TONIGHT by 12PM EST.

I will also be giving away some promotional copies for FREE in the coming week.  So keep your eyes peeled on Discord and on the Forums for more details.

For those interested, there is a special 20% off discount code I have through my publisher you can use that is valid until the END OF THE YEAR - AITGG230 

FOR THOSE NOT PURCHASING THE BOOK, THE ASSETS WILL BE POSTED TO THE STORE IN THE COMING WEEK OR SO FOR PURCHASE.  

This Week in GameGuru - 08/05/2019

Sorry for missing last week guys.  Life got in the way. Life is trying to get in the way this week as well, but I'm going to quickly blast this report out before another dumpster fire breaks out in my near periphery.

GameGuru News

One - Lee continues to make adjustments and updates.  He's improved makehuman compatibility and FBX imports are now a thing.  I'd love to see a video tutorial of these updates to better know what this all means for us, perhaps some live examples.  See the github log below:

Also Preben added a new physics shape - convex hulls to GG's github commits - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220961

What's Good in The Store

Well, this week we have a lot of really good stuff.  Fredgames continues to impress though I'd argue his pricing is a smidge high for this market.  Or heck, maybe it isn't.  Maybe he's selling like hotcakes.

Either way, it's quality work if you're looking for decent models. Lafette's robotic's lab and steam engine are also pretty fantastic, so definitely give that a look. Gtox has gone on from fish to birds, now having a number of stork/crane/herons on the store.

Free Stuff

Sorry guys, time doesn't permit me to break this down but there's a lot of great free stuff on the forums.  Check this link to head there directly: https://forum.game-guru.com/board/25

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

If you haven't been paying attention the official youtube channel of GameGuru has been posting MANY short, easy tutorials. Some good stuff there, check them out here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1q1e3Q9IKMk4nDlAGb_5Jg/videos

The third party asset manager is still being worked on, check out the progress here:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822/newest

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Bonesy has posted some really interesting screenshots with some community feedback and it's looking better all the time:

 

Solar has a new project (I still want to see his other one, Resist: Revolution finished though!) called 'Kaboom Foxie' - looks like a revamp of some of the cartoon and easter egg assets.  Smart use of existing components, in my opinion:

 

I'm always a fan of clever re-use of assets.  Check out the progress and videos here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220951 

Cogwheel Chronicles (By Cybernessence) has a new screenshot of the dragon from last week.

Wow, the shader updates made this monster look very impressive!

Scienceboy's epic "Twin Worlds" is coming along beautifully.  The latest screenshots are incredible and I'm really looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition.

In My Own Works

What a busy week. Aside from dealing with a newborn, a toddler, and a nine year old with some learning disabilities... it's been an absolute mess.  My book's deadline for production got pushed up to the 7th. So good news, everyone - the book will be available very soon.  However, please hold off on purchasing until next week's GameGuru report as I will have a special 20% coupon with it.

For the record, I asked for the chunky, blocky look.

I've also been putting together the book's materials at the last minute and have some screenshots to show you all.  The idea here is fast, low poly models that look good but run very well for a number of projects.  I will be including them with the book but you will (if you prefer) be able to buy them separately on the store for about 29.95 (this will include many of my existing works as well).  

The book itself will be priced rather high for the GameGuru community.  Regrettably I have no control over the final price.  However, the 20% coupon will help mitigate it and the included materials will also make it much more attractive.  I have something on the order of 30 or 40 maps included with it as demonstrations of concepts straight out of the book.

Keep your eyes open because next week I'll have all the full details!

This Week in GameGuru - 07/15/2019

This week we finally received the public launch of the updated engine.  

GameGuru News

 

Lots of mini-updates to the big update done.  Looks like Lee is continuing his active involvement on github via the code tracking here: https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/8d6552fb6d1b0bb759e20bb6e84e1f8bf0ee361c

Notably there's a bit in there about making Makehuman characters more easily importable.  While I like the integration and simplicity of the Character Creator, I think this is also a worthy effort to help further define GameGuru's place in the grand scheme of things. 

What's Good in the Store

 

Sula did a whole village for sale.

Ironically I was *JUST* considering making a wheat vegetation object.

He's rapidly becoming one of the most prolific PBR modellers on the store. Beyond that, not much else is going on on the store this week.

Free Stuff

 

I wasn't able to find anything free this week.  Better luck next time guys!

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

Lots of great tutorials this week.  Notably Dvader (who previously made some really interesting work in GameGuru) has returned with a very simple 'lunar launch' tutorial.

Amenmoses wrote up a good tutorial on sound usage in GameGuru: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220877

Graphix has opened up his asset manager for GG for testing: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822?page=4

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week Honkeyboy posted an interesting EBE build on one of his projects:

Complete with hidden burial chambers!

More info can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220833/newest

And this week we got a return from old-timer 'scienceboy' with his mega-epic 'Twin Worlds':

Full info on the latest can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/208185?page=10#msg2617651

Cybernessence of course continues to amaze with a huge update.  He's recently done some interesting work with the terrain shader:

Looking better and bettter!

There's a lot of additional info but one thing of note is he created an interior environment zone that allows localized cubemaps based on your zone.  This is a massive improvement over the stock system and I would push to have this change added immediately for the sake of more serious creators: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=6#msg2617883

In My Own Works

Time has been hard to find, mostly just upkeep on nearly constant book questions by the publisher and typesetting company. Beyond that looking at trying to get some works done for the sidecar materials for the book.  This includes some last minute procurement and speccing up demo levels for people to learn from.

This Week in GameGuru - 07/08/2019

Well, I'm back, finally.  My life is still absolute chaos from the baby's arrival but I've been able to shore up enough time to put together a GameGuru report for everyone. Deepest apologies for missing anything, but there's a tremendous backlog to work through.

GameGuru News

Obviously the biggest news here is that the big patch dropped.  By the time you see this, the newest patch will likely have trickled from the public preview (a sort of open beta) to the main branch.  This huge, expansive update has a significant number of major bugfixes from numerous community members such as T-Bone, BoredOfTheRings, Defy, Preben and others.  It also has some back end work from Lee.  It purports to provide:

• 41 Major fixes. 
• Lots of water fixes
• Z Depth issues,
• Glass casting shadows
• And many other fixes for long time issues. More info can be found here: https://www.thegamecreators.com/post/gameguru-publicpreview-released

I am really looking forward to having a chance to test this myself. Of note are the apparently now functional lightmapping system, which has been a MAJOR thorn in the side of the DX11 builds along with some serious memory work.

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

I made a nearly complete guide to the projectile system here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220802

A third party asset management tool is in the works, which I find particularly exciting: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220822

The GameGuru youtube official channel has posted a number of recent updates for usage tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1q1e3Q9IKMk4nDlAGb_5Jg/videos

What's Good in the Store

Mad Lobster put up a really excellent film pack of PBR assets.

This is an exceptionally high quality pack and is definitely a must-buy if you use these types of materials.

Sula finally got around to making his cars into a pack, it's pricey but definitely worth the cost if you need a large number of European vehicles that are PBR enabled.

FredGames has put together an interesting Sci-Fi snap-together kit.

Beyond that T-Bone has put together several interesting script and clutter pieces, check his artist page here: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/45855

Tarkus1971 has been hard at work at music assets, which are generally speaking great quality for the price: https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/219730

And lastly Graphix has been hard at work on many of his own assets such as fences, graveyards and the more.

Free Stuff

A great number of free assets were released recently.  Wolf, in particular, posted a massive megathread of all of his free stuff.

This is a definite must-visit for anyone who hasn't obtained his high quality DNIS assets.

Tarkus1971 put up a new music track called a retro volca?  I'm not familiar with it but his work up to this point has been really decent.  Get your copy here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190?page=5#msg2617272

MaiaCombra put together a decayed burlap decal

This should have good utility in a war torn of post apocalyptic environment.

And also several other items such as a mobile interface and a retexture of HarryWever's crane.

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This section will likely not be as updated as it should be because simply there's too much to pour over.  I will attempt to capture some of the more interesting things I've seen recently.

Far and away I absolutely loved T-bone (Teabone)'s 'garbage cleanup simulator' found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRo_vt1tY60



Duchenkuke posted a kitschy project that might have some potential. It gave me a few laughs, at least, the video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItHmZyKs1rU

Amenmoses has been doing wonderful things with particles: https://vimeo.com/345087887

Solar's project Resist: Revolution is still looking like it's making good forward progress: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218343/newest

Honkeyboy is back with some interesting work.  While it may need some polish, be aware he does some pretty interesting work with his Lua code so keep an eye on it for that reason if no other strikes your fancy: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220833

Newcomer "J-Dup" put some interesting work into a project called "The Last Dweller". 

More info and a video can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220872

Cybernessence has continued his phenomenal work on GameGuru and his project:

The above picture illustrates in the author's words: "Just updated the terrain shader to use combined textures, diffuse with specular in alpha and normal with ao in alpha channel.

This saves texture memory and the results for terrain really pop (the ao really make a big difference), it's now looking a lot like how the basic unity PBR terrain does ..."

A host of new and updated works really flooded my research here and I apologize for those I missed.  Keep writing your updates so I can see the latest and greatest screenshots to help plug your projects with!

In My Own Works

One of the harder tasks I've had over the past few weeks is balancing a demanding publisher's schedule while dealing with a new baby.  I've had numerous revisions, requests, and the like to fix up  my book or change various bits about it.  It's been difficult to find time but I've found a way to stay on schedule, even if that means making the updates at 3AM while holding a screaming infant.

Also of note I made a private Discord server with many of the heavy hitters of GameGuru, specifically to help facilitate changes faster in our community.  That went into play shortly before my daughter's arrival so I'd like to think it helped a bit with getting this latest update out into the world.

This Week in GameGuru - 06/03/2019

This will likely be my last update for 2-3 weeks.  This is due to the imminent delivery of my third child.

GameGuru News 

This week we had an info-drop on github with an update from Lee.  You can see the full details of it here but the latest essentially confirms that he's got a heavy focus on multiplayer and VR:
 https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/commit/243fbd39d2085a9265a67810a232c481150c69ed

While this is disappointing from a bug-fixing standpoint, it is at least some form of development so I'm curious to see when this thing is planned on going live. 

Lastly if you haven't taken a look at the thread on the forums about the lack of official word (I don't count, sorry!) then check here:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220783?page=2

What's Good in the Store

Nothing new this week, sorry guys.  My camerakit is still on sale at half off, so pick it up now before it falls off sale!

https://www.tgcstore.net/product/31048

Free Stuff 

Graphix made a free cubemap skybox of a winter forest: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217932?page=14#msg2615957

JPH made a six-pack of free PBR skyscrapers.  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219734?page=2#msg2615961

Third party Tools and Tutorials 

BOTR continues his impressive work on an FPSC to GG importer.  This pipeline could really save some of the level creation of GG, considering the terrain engine is the biggest slowdown for the system.  TGC would do well to leverage projects like this.  

Defy is looking at putting together a dev log, but continues some important off the books work on saving and loading.  He may have a solution to some very serious problems with the current setup.  Time will tell!

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

This week we saw a great demo of Slaur3n's cowboy survival game. 

The video shows a fairly high level of refinement for a GameGuru Game and I recommend all GG developers watch this for a good idea of some interesting new gameplay considerations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ZfYsLA_dA&feature=youtu.be

Meanwhile, Bod has been plugging away at getting functional vehicles more functional by adding a working speedometer!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHf6EjWIGxE

My 'Silent Hill GG-Style' Game is available for download after having been updated to DX11: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/216959#msg2615894
Be gentle, it reflects my game design from 3 years ago and I did little to actually change it beyond making it work in DX11.

DenZelik updated his game Neir:

While the asset use is fairly tame, I do like seeing that he's worked on custom inventory and HUDs so keep an eye on this one!

In My Own Works

This week I got sick of the stumbling blocks I kept hitting with the projectile system.  Between talking to EAI, Preben, and others I came to the conclusion I would need to dig into GG's root source code to figure out what was happening. My goal was to create a tennis-ball like weapon that would do no damage but interact from a physics standpoint with the game engine.  So in short, a very similar weapon to what's in Unreal.

https://youtu.be/6N2OSD-COt4 Thankfully I was able to find the problem and will make sure that my tutorial (to be posted soon) will have this information in it! 

This Week in GameGuru - 05/29/2019

A word of warning before we begin - my wife is due to deliver our 3rd any day now.  If and when I go in to the hospital for our newest (a girl) to arrive, there's very likely to be a lapse in this newsletter for two to three weeks. For now, I will continue to provide my articles as long as I am able.
 

GameGuru News

The natives are getting very restless.  Six months of bugfixes were promised and many are anxiously awaiting what is mostly anticipated as a very large update.  TheGameCreators have been extremely tight lipped about their current workings so it's lead to a significant amount of speculation from the community with respect to worry about a lackluster or nonexistent release.

I personally have heard musings from those close to TGC but it's all hearsay at this point.  I do have a good idea that we'll see a big update including multiplayer due to official releases from Lee on the forums but for the moment we're all sitting and waiting.

This anxiety has culminated in a master thread here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220783

If you have been following my newsletters you will notice that I've been focused significantly on the works from third parties such as AmenMoses, Cybernessence, BOTR, Preben, and others.  This information is significantly more useful to me than speculation on what Lee is doing. I think a lot of the community hasn't really caught on to the fact that once code is released to GitHub, it's no longer a one man show. I myself have gone into the code many times to find an answer I'd never find elsewhere. While I appreciate any core updates being done by Lee, at the same time I know at this point community development will give us much more bang for the buck.
 

What's Good in the Store

Nothing that I saw really piqued my interest.  Of note though are the new seller rules for the sales section so make sure you scroll through the sales at the top.  Sellers are restricted to 60 sales in a 6 month period.  That means essentially 10 per month. These can only run for a maximum of 7 days.

The sales are also randomly shuffled on site reload so the order will change every time you view the main page.  Bottom line is there are a lot of sales up right now.  Notably Graphix has a significant amount of high quality PBR assets available for a good price.

BSP has 3 weapon packs on sale.

Sula's wild west pack is on sale.

Wizard of id is selling two major packs.

Free Stuff

https://elgatongames.com/detail/38/?fbclid=IwAR3_7UOKqSlKtWq915tWKuvJJ5Vse1gVre-Srbnu4o0yn13FFeD-RigpRZE Maiacombra made a South American City skybox.  Very interesting work and definitely could have solid in-game use for many.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/220750 Graphix provided a free new explosion to replace the default media. 
 

Third Party Tools and Tutorials 

Game Launcher Creator is on sale but also added some features this week.

BOTR has been working on creating FPSC to GG pipeline tools to help people get assets and levels from FPSC into GG.  This, in my opinion, is huge.  FPSC provides a massive toolset from a level building standpoint and could really open things up for level design. 

This is an import of the Metro Theater Level.

Granted, it's a weird pipeline building in FPSC and importing into GG, but this sort of cross pollination helps break the limits we're dealing with.  More info here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219806?page=4#msg2615725

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Cybernessence has apparently, based on something I said *shocked look* decided to add multiple grass types to his branch of GameGuru.

You can see three different vegetation types here.

I'm seriously excited about seeing this change in the live branch. Here's to hoping he merges what changes he has soon so we can at least get current with his work. Details can be found here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=6



Defy's been posting some interesting videos of his experiments with the save-load system, AI, and other core functions in GG.

In My Own Works

I've been working at length with the projectile system in GameGuru, I will do a write-up in the near future when that's done.  At this point though I have a good handle on the system and feel very comfortable creating everything from rapid-fire plasma guns to flamethrowers. 
Here's some examples of this (please note the sound is out of sync due to the program I use being a poor choice for video):

• Dynamite for Len the Man's cowboy game
• A plasma gun for my book's assets
• A simple flamethrower test (needs an updated projectile model)

So there's been a lot of good progress there. I still have miles to go, but once I'm done rest assured it will find it's way onto the forums as a tutorial post.

The publisher has been bouncing cover art and design notes at me.

Chapter 1 on the left, cover art on the right.

 
The above shows some of what I'm working on.  The cover art is mosaic tiled to ensure I don't break any confidentiality clauses.

This Week in GameGuru - 5/20/2019

GameGuru News

There's lots of ripples in the water, but nothing breaking the surface yet.  So far, a fairly tame week for news.  Nothing on github.  Nothing on steam.  Nothing on the forums.  Officially, at least.  I'll hold off on rumor-mongering until something more concrete forms.

What's Good in the Store

This week the store was flooded by new products and packs.

Fredgames77 has put out a new 'Pack Modular School' and a 'Futuristic street bike'. While the school is a fairly completely set of models, it's also extremely expensive when compared against the baseline for similar products on the store.  I guess we'll see if that baseline goes up or his price comes down.

Sula continues to add a tremendous amount of old European cars to his portfolio.

Corrosion added several "HD" modeled soldiers if you feel you need more masked gunmen for you game(s): https://www.tgcstore.net/artist/221852

The most exciting stuff this week came from Belidos and Pasquill, respectively. Belidos finally released his very impressive isometric dungeon kit:

Which includes seven sub-packs with a huge pile of items in each one.  The best deal, of course, is to buy the main kit which for $9.99 as a sale price gets you access to the entire kit and caboodle. This pack is well worth the buy price if you're looking for a great entry into the 3D isometric genre.

Next up is one of my perennial favorites - Pasquil.  Pasquil has put out a clutter kit of high quality, well mapped PBR assets that are also low poly.

The price is very reasonable at a scant 7 dollars for what is essentially a full library of great outdoor clutter components.

Free Stuff

Tarkus1971 provided a free music track: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213190?page=5#msg2615615

Harrywever (AKA Dagored) provided two new free skyscrapers:

You can get your version here - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/210761?page=6#msg2615542

Third Party Tools and Tutorials

BOTR added some more dev notes, he is apparently working on an HM2GG 4.0 - https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219806?page=4#msg2615685

Random Acts of Creativity (WIPs)

Cybernessence posted some new pictures of his water shader.  I truly hope his changes get integrated into the GG core ASAP.  It's great seeing some fresh development, even if it's not by TGC directly.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=6#msg2615674

In My Own Works

This week I released my final batch of edits to the publisher (due 5/20) along with some minor changes to art and wording.  This however, marks the final bit of changes I can do easily without 'major costs' before the Aug 19th print date.
I also got a picture of my book cover. Looks good. The cover art is what I discussed with my publisher and the format looks good.  Mostly minor issues.

For those interested in the custom assets, I'm currently working on a flamethrower, which is 90% functional using the particle system.  It's fun to use :) 

I've also been on the hunt for some issues with my projectile weapons and other weapons I intend to release with the book. One turned out to be my own personal install - a complete reinstall resolved it. So one down, many to go.  I'm really looking forward to release some of these excellent assets!